For telephone call purposes, a geopolitical area, such as the United States, is divided into a plurality of contiguous, non-overlapping districts called exchanges, each of which is served by a Local Exchange Carrier (LEC). The exchanges are also referred to as Local Access Transport Areas (LATAs). Telephone calls originating and terminating within the same exchange, referred to as intra-exchange calls, are handled end-to-end by an intra-exchange service provider or LEC. Calls originating within one exchange or in a foreign country and terminating in a different exchange or in a foreign country, referred to as inter-exchange calls, are handled at each end by the intra-exchange service provider that services the originating and the terminating exchanges. These inter-exchange calls are carried between the intra-exchange service providers by one or more inter-exchange service providers, generally known as Long Distance companies.
For certain telephone calls, for example, those that progress beyond the LEC (e.g., inter-exchange calls), a long distance toll charge is typically levied on a per call basis. In addition, certain intra-exchange calls also levy a toll charge, for example, those that progress beyond a flat rate billing area for a particular consumer. The flat rate billing area is typically some small geographic zone within an exchange within which a particular consumer can originate unlimited calls for a fixed dollar amount.
An inter-exchange service provider can be selected by consumers on a per call basis by the use of an access code (e.g., 10--10XXX) which identifies the selected service provider and which is entered from a calling station when the call is placed. For example, even if the calling station is pre-subscribed for a particular inter-exchange service provider, another one can be selected by dialing, before the usual ten digit number, an access code in a prescribed format, where some of the digits are the code for a particular service provider. Entry of the access code will override the pre-subscription and place the call with the toll service provider requested for that call. Similarly, it is estimated that consumers will also be able to select intra-exchange service providers in this manner in the near future.
Because of increasing competition among inter-exchange service providers in providing inter-exchange or long distance toll call services to consumers, inter-exchange service providers have offered a plethora of discounted calling plans to lure consumers and businesses into using their long distance telecommunications services. These discount calling plans are based on such factors as time of day or day of week, bundled minute plans, and the like. For example, one inter-exchange service provider currently offers twenty minutes of long distance toll call service for one dollar.
It is known in the prior art for LECs to offer a service wherein a dialed call is selectively routed to one of many inter-exchange service providers based on user-created data base records. See U.S. Pat. No. 4,866,763 entitled "Interexchange Carrier Automatic Route Selection System" issued Sep. 12, 1989, to Cooper et al. Arrangements are also known in the prior art in which a device chooses which of several telecommunications service providers a call should be routed to based on the call's class of service, for example, time of day for the call, the day of the week for the call, or area code called. See U.S. Pat. No. 5,781,620 entitled "Method and System for Toll Carrier Selection" issued Jul. 14, 1998, to Montgomery et al.
However, such prior art arrangements have not considered all available factors in selecting a least-cost telecommunications service provider on a per call basis. Such factors include, for example, the ever-increasing complexity of discount calling plans being offered by telecommunications service providers (especially the bundling of minutes for fixed dollar amounts) and the lack of uniformity in customer calling patterns. As a result, such prior art arrangements can route a call to an inappropriate or higher-cost telecommunications service provider than is necessary or desired.